Most LGBTQ+ adults feel Americans don't accept transgender people, Pew
poll finds
[May 30, 2025]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. see lower social acceptance for transgender
people than those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, a new Pew Research
Center poll found.
Pew found that about 6 in 10 LGBTQ+ adults said there is “a great deal”
or “a fair amount” of social acceptance in the U.S. for gay and lesbian
people. Only about 1 in 10 said the same for nonbinary and transgender
people — and about half said there was “not much” or no acceptance at
all for transgender people.
Giovonni Santiago, a 39-year-old transgender man and Air Force veteran
who lives in Northeast Ohio and was not a participant in the survey,
said he feels that acceptance for transgender people has declined in the
last few years – roughly in step with the rise of state laws banning
gender-affirming care for transgender minors, regulating which school
and public bathrooms transgender people can use and which sports they
can play.
He said he's seen acceptance get worse nationally, following the lead of
some places that were early adopters of restrictions.
"They were like the anomaly for ignorance and in hatred, especially
towards trans people,” Santiago said. “But now we see that it’s just
kind of sweeping the nation, unfortunately.”
Still, Santiago said he doesn’t fear for his own personal safety — a
contrast with most transgender people, who said they have feared for
their safety at some point.
“I guess I don’t feel it as much because I live a life that most people
don’t know that I’m trans unless I specifically tell them,” said
Santiago, who runs a nonprofit dedicated to supporting transgender
youth.
The survey of 3,959 LGBTQ+ adults was conducted in January, after
President Donald Trump was elected but just before he returned to office
and set into motion a series of policies that question the existence of
transgender people.
On his first day, Trump signed an executive order calling on the
government to recognize people as male or female based on the
“biological truth” of their future cells at conception, rather than
accept scientific evidence that gender is a spectrum. Since then, he’s
begun ousting transgender service members from the military, and tried
to bar transgender women and girls from sports competitions for females
and block federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender
people under 19, among other orders.
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Audrey Campos poses for The Associated Press while hosting a Loteria
game night at Jackie O's Cocktail Club in Fort Worth, Texas,
Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ronaldo Bolaños)
A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research conducted in May found that about half of U.S. adults
approve of how Trump is handling transgender issues, with a range of
views on specific actions.
According to the Pew poll, about two-thirds of LGBTQ+ adults said
the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage
nationally 10 years ago boosted acceptance of same-sex couples “a
lot more” or “somewhat more.” The Supreme Court is expected to rule
in coming weeks on a major case regarding transgender people —
deciding whether Tennessee can enforce a ban on gender-affirming
care for minors.
Transgender people are less likely than gay or lesbian adults to say
they’re accepted by all their family members. The majority of LGBTQ+
said their siblings and friends accepted them, though the rates were
slightly higher among gay or lesbian people. About half of gay and
lesbian people said their parents did, compared with about one-third
of transgender people. Only about 1 in 10 transgender people
reported feeling accepted by their extended family, compared with
about 3 in 10 gay or lesbian people.
Transgender people are more likely than gay, lesbian or bisexual
people to say they feel “extremely” or "very" connected to a broader
LGBTQ+ community and to say that all or most of their friends are
also LGBTQ+.
Some elements of the experience are similar. About one-third of
transgender and lesbian or gay adults said they first felt they
might be LGBTQ+ by the time they were 10 and most did by age 13.
About half waited until they were at least 18 to first tell someone.
Aubrey Campos, 41, runs a taco truck near a hub of LGBTQ+ bars in
Fort Worth, Texas, and also serves as a community organizer. She
says her parents were supportive when she came out as transgender at
about age 12. But the younger trans people she works with often have
very different experiences — including some who were kicked out of
their homes.
“Now the times are a little bit dark," she said. "This is a time
that we to come together and make it brighter and make it known that
we aren’t going to just disappear.”
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